Institutional racism is still prevalent in the United States. Racial groups are both denied or granted certain rights. Although there may no longer be lynch mobs or Jim Crow, there is still rampant racism from New York to Jena, Louisiana. Society should disband its racial conventions in programs such as affirmative action. It should instead adopt a new system based on many more factors than a person’s ethnic background.
Decades ago the issue was over creating equal opportunities for all people regardless of ethnic background. The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark case for the civil rights movement. It solidified the rights of the minority to receive the same access to education as the white student. In modern society minority’s now feel more privileges should be awarded to them because of past transgressions. Many feel affirmative action is a solution. If the goal is to provide equal opportunities for all, why should it solely be based on ethnic background?
Ethnicity is much different in the United States today than it was ever before. The United States is the most ethnically diverse nation in the world. Immigrants flock here from all over the world to seek opportunities. Blacks are no longer the only major minority in the nation. Hispanics are the largest minority and along with them come a sizeable Asian counterpart. These two groups contribute largely to the ethnic makeup of the country. They also create unique situations and conflicts not encountered before.
Society has made a mistake with its current form of affirmative action. Instead of creating equal opportunities for everyone, it is one sided and ineffective. The current system of affirmative action gives minority groups certain benefits when it...
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...till being fought over, but now in different perspectives. Ultimately, society is balancing itself out. To truly achieve equality society must give up its old conventions and embrace new ones.
Works Cited
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1856/1856_0/
http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark/dredscott.html
http://www.landmarkcases.org/dredscott/home.html
Grutter V. Bollinger
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_241/argument
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_241/
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/michigan/index.html
Brown V. Board
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=347&invol=483
Gratz V. Bollinger
http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_516/
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=02-516#dissent1
Next, Institutional or systemic racism refers to the laws, policies, practices, rules and procedures that operate within organisations, societal structures and the broader community to the advantage of the dominant group or groups and to the detriment and disadvantage of other groups. Institutional racism may be intentional or unintentional. Jim Crowe is a great example of institutional racism. Jim Crow laws were the name of the racist caste system put in place to segregate African Americans, Hispanics and any ethnic minority. Theses laws made it so non whites could not integrate with minorities. These laws applied to hospitals, buses, toilets and drinking fountains and restaurants. For example Buses: All passenger stations in this state operated
Institutional racism is defined in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) as “the manifestation of racism in social systems and institutions. It is the social, economic, educational, and political forces or policies that operate to foster discriminatory outcomes. It is the combination of policies, practices, or procedures embedded in bureaucratic structure that systematically lead to unequal outcomes for groups of people”(2007). In other words, policy and practices intentionally or unintentionally favor one group or put a racial group at a
To sum everything up, we as a human race are not perfect, nor will we ever make solutions that will satisfy both side of arguments. One lesson we can learn from this research paper, however, is that everyone should have the ability to fully enjoy their Equal Protection Clause under the Fourteenth Amendments. Nonetheless, the development of reverse discrimination, the creation of stigma against women and minorities, the buildup of racial tension, and the fact of attempting to solve a racial problem that no longer exist all contributed to the danger of affirmative action. It may be created with good intentions, but certainly not applicable to our society now if all of us wish to be treated equal.
It was thought that the color of people 's skin could say exactly who they are. These ridiculous ideas of knowing who people are based on what they look like were derived from stereotypes that have been around for a while. These stereotypes came from the Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, who spread these ideas like wildfire. These ideas were drilled into people 's heads, and these ideas were taken as true facts, and this influenced them to do actions that can 't be proven to be racist, but have a racist motive. This concept is highly seen in institutional racism. The KKK spread many ideas that made people who were different seem like savages who did not con form to society. Laws were set into place to prevent discrimination. Despite laws, these stereotypes are still seen today and thus we see institutional racism.
The history of the United States is one of duality. In the words of the
Subconscious prejudices, self-segregation, political correctness, reverse discrimination, and ignorance all wade in the pool of opinions surrounding affirmative action and racial animosity. With racial tensions ever present in this country, one might question whether the problems can be solved by affirmative action.
Institutional racism are those accepted, established, evident, respected forces, social arrangements, institutions, structures, policies, precedents an systems of social relations that operate are manipulated in such a way as to allow, support individual acts of racism. It is also to deprive certain racially identified categories within a society a chance to share, have equal access to, or have equal opportunity to acquire those things, material and nonmaterial, that are defined as desirable and necessary for rising in an hierarchical class society while that society is dependent, in part, upon that group they deprive for their labor and loyalty. Institutional racism is more subtle, less visible, and less identifiable but no less destructive to human life and human dignity than individual acts of racism. Institutional racism deprives a racially identified group, usually defined as generally inferior to the defining dominant group, equal access to education medical care, law, politics, housing, etc.1 Racism by domination of bigot whites has silenced a non-dominant group like African Americans in the past and continues to do so today with other non-dominant groups through institutionalized racism that suffers the hearts and minds of those targeted.
The purpose ofAffirmative Action is a simple one, it exists to level the playing field, so to speak, in the areas of hiring and college admissions based on characteristics that usually include race, sex, and/or ethnicity. A certain minority group or gender may be underrepresented in an arena, often employment or academia, in theory due to past or ongoing discrimination against members of the group. In such a circumstance, one school of thought maintains that unless this group is concretely helped to achieve a more substantial representation, it will have difficulty gaining the critical mass and acceptance in that role, even if overt discrimination against the group is eradicated. For this reason, more effort must be made to recruit persons from that background, train them, and lower the entrance requirements for them. (Goldman, 1976, p. 179) Proponents of affirmative action argue that affirmative action is the best way to corre...
The concept of institutional racism was introduced in 1960s America. The concept was politically powerful in expanding existing understandings of racial inequalities which focused on individual prejudic...
Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year old African American boy who was murdered in Money, Mississippi after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Since he was from the north, he did not know that he was not allowed to talk to a white woman in the south. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went to Till's great uncle’s house. They took the boy away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river. Roy and Milam were acquitted of murder because of the all-white, all-male Mississippi jury. At the same time, Sheriff Strider booked Levi "Too Tight" Collins and Henry Lee Loggins into the Charleston, Mississippi jail to keep them from testifying. Both were black employees of Leslie Milam, J. W.'s brother, in whose shed Till was beaten. Therefore, racial bias effects jurors’ ability to give an impartial trial.
Since the beginning of colonization, America has been controlled by religiously and ethically diverse whites. The most profound cases of racism in the “United” States of America have been felt by Native Americans, Asians, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Muslims. Major racially structured institutions include; slavery, settlement, Indian reservations, segregation, residential schools, and internment camps (Racism in the U.S., 1). Racism has been felt and seen by many in housing, the educational system, places of employment, and the government. Discrimination was largely criminalized in the mid 20th century, and at the same time became socially unacceptable and morally repugnant (Racism in the U.S., 1). Although racism was
Racial diversity is a desired concept that intends to secure the right of equal opportunity that is promised to all citizens of the United States. Such an idealistic vision has been attempted through a process called affirmative action. As a program created from the 14th Amendment, affirmative action aims to impose “equal protection of the laws” by requiring schools to adopt a quota for the enrollment of minorities. This program is intended to compensate for the centuries of discrimination that minorities have faced, but affirmative action has became problematic as it has failed to do this. Affirmative action is not the solution to ensure equal opportunity for minorities to access higher education. Although affirmative action has increased diversity in selective schools, it defeats its purpose because the resulting diversity is not equal representation of the nation’s communities , the process has led to reverse discrimination, and the education standard has been lowered in the selective schools.
Discrimination is still a chronic global issue, and drastic inequalities still exist at the present time. Thus, the Affirmative Action Law is an important tool to many minorities most especially to women, and people of color, for the reason that this program provides an equality on educational, and professional opportunities for every qualified individual living in the United States. Without this program, a higher education would have been impossible for a “minority students” to attain. Additionally, without the Affirmative Action, a fair opportunity to have a higher-level career...
Today there is considerable disagreement in the country over Affirmative Action with the American people. MSNBC reported a record low in support for Affirmative Action with 45% in support and 45% opposing (Muller, 2013). The affirmative action programs have afforded all genders and races, exempting white males, a sense of optimism and an avenue to get the opportunities they normally would not be eligible for. This advantage includes admission in colleges or hiring preferences with public and private jobs; although Affirmative Action has never required quotas the government has initiated a benefits program for the schools and companies that elect to be diversified. The advantages that are received by the minorities’ only take into account skin color, gender, disability, etc., are what is recognized as discriminatory factors. What is viewed as racism to the majority is that there ar...
The focus of this paper is on the history of affirmative action and its relevance to our society. Affirmative action focuses on the importance of equality and equal opportunity among all people in terms of education and employment. In coordination with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunities Act of 1972, the affirmative action policy was submitted by federal agencies. Is it not true that ethnic minorities do not have the same opportunities in life as whites, and that women should be entitled to the same opportunities as men? This act is only a means to help the less advantaged members of our society. In this case the less advantage would be those of color and women (www.infoplease.com).